As temperatures dipped to 47°F and spectators bundled up for the unusually long cold spell this week in Wellington, FL, Anna Marek and Fire Fly turned the heat on to claim the FEI World Cup™ Grand Prix Freestyle, sponsored by Douglas Elliman Real Estate. They logged 77.755% for their performance during ‘Friday Night Stars’, the gala evening of top-level freestyle competition on January 24, in week three of the 12-week 2025 Adequan® Global Dressage Festival (AGDF).
Kevin Kohmann (USA) finished second with Dünensee, scoring 77.545% with Thursday’s qualifying grand prix winner, Germany’s Felicitas Hendricks, rounding out the podium in third with 76.365% on Drombusch OLD. (Top Canadian was Camille Carier Bergeron, 8th riding Finnländerin with 73.165%)
The class doubled as a qualifier for the new US Equestrian Open of Dressage, which features 23 qualifiers—seven of which are hosted by Wellington International at AGDF—before the final in California in November. Hendricks now sits atop the qualifying scoreboard with 37 points, though the top three riders all have the final in their crosshairs.
Ocala-based Marek paired up with Fire Fly, Janet Simile’s 15-year-old gelding by Briar Junior, just over three years ago and the duo claimed team gold and individual bronze at the 2023 Pan American Games. Their freestyle, set to music from the Stranger Things soundtrack, carried a high degree of difficulty and included 13 two-time changes on a curve and metronomic, drumbeat passage.
“This freestyle is really fun to ride, and I love the dramatic music,” said Marek, whose groom Cheyenne Duncan was awarded a check for $500 courtesy of the Lövsta Future Challenge. “This is my favorite freestyle venue to ride at; you can feel the atmosphere, and the horses get excited in a really good way—I knew he’d get pumped up.
“Fire Fly is a very sensitive, spooky horse,” continued Marek, who trains with Anne Gribbons. “When I started riding him I told his owner it might take me a while for us to show Grand Prix together, but we keep getting better and better. It’s taken us a little while to get on the same page, but now I feel like he’d do anything for me. It’s really exciting.”
Kohmann and the 16-year-old Dünensee’s score was just shy of their career high of 77.72% set in December 2023. They performed an energetic freestyle with a high degree of difficulty, coming straight out of the first halt into canter pirouettes and curving changes to a modern compilation including the lyrics ‘At least we stole the show’. He even rode a piaffe pirouette in the middle of the walk section.
“That was my best ride on him,” beamed Kohmann, who currently sits atop the FEI World Cup™ North American League. “I was super thrilled, especially that my horse is finally walking [calmly], as that was not always our strength. I love riding the freestyle and I love riding here under the lights.”
The partnership has been a long time in the formation as Kohmann rode Dünensee as a five-year-old when he was too big for his now wife Devon Kane. The horse was sold, which did not work out, and he returned under the saddle of Kohmann’s trainer Christoph Koschel, who advised Kohmann to keep the talented son of Dancier.
“Thank God I listened to Christof because he was absolutely right and this horse is helping me so much,” added Kohmann, who hopes to compete him in Europe over the summer. “Tonight I was actually a little worried as we just clipped him and it was very cold, but the horse really performed all the way through. I can’t thank him enough.”
Hendricks and her Destano gelding Drombusch had a couple of uncharacteristic hiccups, capping the score below this pair’s previous best.
“I think the cold got to us a little today,” explained Hendricks, who also trains with Koschel. “There was some spiciness that I didn’t expect so I had to back off a bit which made me maybe a little too shy with my aids and led to a couple of mistakes. But I’d rather have a horse with too much energy than a horse with low energy. I know warmer days are coming and we’ll be back on track then. It’s all a learning experience that never ever stops.”
The Dutch judge at C, Monique Peutz-Vegter, was impressed with the top three rides, saying: “They were a high standard. I told my scribe that I didn’t even feel the cold anymore because I was so excited. We had fun with the music; you could see the riders had fun and the horses wanted to go, which was wonderful.”
Click HERE for full results from the FEI World Cup™ Dressage Grand Prix Freestyle, presented by Douglas Elliman Real Estate. Click HERE for complete AGDF 3 results.
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